Main navigation

All work and no play…

“I work from 8 a.m. to midnight every day. My overtime is 300 hours each month, and I can take only one holiday in six months.”

Bank employee, 34, in a telephone call to the Japan Association of Labor Lawyers, as unpaid overtime complaints rise.

Admittedly this is an extreme case, but from what I’ve seen myself, unpaid overtime is very common and generally unchallenged. Plus with the economy still in a slump, and the Japanese tradition of a job for life becoming a thing of the past, it isn’t going to go away any time soon.

Now whilst I haven’t really suffered culture shock in my time here, experiencing the Japanese attitude to work is certainly a shock of sorts. With this working for free business being a prime example. Coming from Britain, overtime itself is a dirty word. As for unpaid overtime, well…

Reader Interactions

Comments

You’re right, overtime is a dirty word – for employers who don’t want to pay extra for what is at the moment just expected.

I haven’t had a single job in the last 12 years that didn’t expect unpaid overtime – that’s during my time as a research engineer for Thorn, five years as a high school teacher and 5 years working for IBM.

I’ll stop whining now – this looks like a post on the BBC 2Have Your Say” page.

That scenario is more common than you might think. I worked at a sub-contractor of Honda for a year and while there I worked from 9:00am to 11:00 or 12:00 every day.
When I contacted the Japanese labor bureau all the said was, “we recommend you look for another job”. So I did. But if Japan wants to increase it’s birth rates it better make the work conditions a little more family friendly.